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Re: [ARSCLIST] "All hail the analogue revolution..."
Hi Milan:
True enough, but most people who buy vinyl nowadays are computer savvy enough to just record the
record to their computer. In fact, I'd wager that many of the "kids who love vinyl" crowd
eventually get that music onto their iPod. I take issue with your "can't be copied 1:1" -- sure it
can if someone has a half-way decent computer and soundcard and phono preamp. In fact, if one takes
the time to carefully remove ticks and pops, it can be copied better than 1:1. I mean remove them
manually, not thru a digi-tool that sucks the life out of the music. As I'm sure you realize, we're
way past the cassette era, when the copy of the LP was sonically degraded in most cases. A good
digital transfer shouldn't degrade. If it does, I'd argue there's a hardware or user-error issue,
not a format problem.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Milan P. Milovanovic" <mijel@xxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 8:29 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] "All hail the analogue revolution..."
Tom,
there is something with vinyl that deserves further thinking, of why is it popular - someone
cannot copy 1:1 vinyl records, and vinyl is the subject of constant degradation, from one listen
to another, so... it can be profitable to record companies.
Regards
Milan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Fine" <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 1:31 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] "All hail the analogue revolution..."
I love the little bit at the end about people who buy LPs "to use like a poster ... especially if
they don't have a record player." Vinyl posers!!
One comment -- a millions LPs sold in the UK does not a trend make. How many million iPods were
sold in the UK? No, vinyl is not "making a comeback" but it was never killed off and is now a
profitable niche for some. Unlike the CD, I could see the vinyl niche surviving into the
all-download era around the corner. The economics of that niche are such that you can be (mildly)
profitable with short runs and inventory/warehouses. CD's are essentially an overpriced commodity
right now, which is why the economics don't work. The music companies would love to do away with
manufacturing and warehousing and having to rely on the likes of Wal-Mart and Amazon to sell
physical products. If they could figure out some way to get Joe Public to pay the same net
profit-per-artist in a completely "virtual" online transaction, they'd be there tomorrow. The
problems are that first of all Joe Public first of all doesn't want to pay for all the junk songs
on most albums, so the net recoverable per artist goes down and second of all there are all the
piracy fears (which may or may not be overblown). And then there are those of us who think 99
cents for a crappy-sounding MP4 file with semi-onerous copy protection is the biggest ripoff
going. But the key thing is, the prime music-buying agegroup is inexorably moving away from
physical CD's and to the iPod/download world, so that's where the business will inevitably go.
LPs will be there as a niche, no doubt. And I think high-resolution digital may survive as a
download model, but the pricing will be such that it won't be mainstream. I can't for the life of
me understand why Apple doesn't nip the quality issue in the bud and put a security wrapper
around their Apple Lossless Format and offer high-rez (CD quality) downloads for maybe $1.25 or
$12 per album. Apparently, quality isn't an issue to the vast fat middle of their market.
BTW, the trend away from physical libraries of music is also big in the upper crust. I know a guy
who gets $5 per CD to rip it into iTunes and turn over a loaded hard drive to his clients. They
send him their whole CD library. He loads up a hard drive with MP3 or AAC or ALF or WAV or
whatever they ask for (to his credit, he advocates ALF or WAV but you'd be surprised how many
clients get all tight-wallet about a 400gig drive vs. a 200gig drive). He then installs the hard
drive in their system and reads it all into their iTunes. Sometimes they pay him another $150 to
load up their iPod so they can be the coolest player in business class on their next flight
without having to actually know or do anything "technical." This guy has all the business he can
do, just from advertising in a few Upper East Side society-type publications. In fact last I
heard, he had farmed out the ripping jobs to his kid brother and the brother's college buddies.
Oh, and some of his clients don't want the CD's back, so he does a booming trade in used CD's
(that's how I got to know him).
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Milan P. Milovanovic" <mijel@xxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 5:23 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] "All hail the analogue revolution..."
Well,
our subject is even at Yahoo, today:
http://www.yahoo.com/s/397244